An ice making device for automatically making ice pieces has been conventionally known which includes two arms, which are respectively fixed to each of both ends of an ice tray, an elevating/lowering member which supports the arms from a lower side to perform up-and-down motion, and a drive motor and a rotation body for moving the elevating/lowering member up and down (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 8-54164).
The ice making device disclosed in the above-mentioned Patent Reference is structured so that two arms fixed in parallel to the both ends of the ice tray are moved up-and-down along a pair of guide grooves. One of the guide grooves is structured of a combination of a straight line region and a curved region which is disposed on its lower side, and the other of the guide grooves is structured of only a straight line region. Therefore, in the ice making device, when the elevating/lowering member is moved lower than the straight line region of the guide groove, only one of the arms is moved downward along the curved region of the one of the guide grooves and thus the ice tray is turned 90° (90 degree) with the other arm as a turning center. Further, in the ice making device, a heater is mounted on the ice tray and, when the ice tray is turned 90° (90 degree), ice pieces whose contacting portions with the ice tray are warmed by the heater and melted are dropped from the ice tray.
In the ice making device which is disclosed in the above-mentioned Patent Reference, two parallel arms are moved up-and-down along a pair of the guide grooves. Therefore, when the two arms fixed to the ice tray are moved up-and-down, the ice tray is liable to tilt. Further, when the ice tray is tilted, a side face of the guide groove is contacted with the arm and thus an unfavorable force may be easily applied to the arm. Further, in the ice making device, when the elevating/lowering member is moved lower than the straight line region of the guide groove, only one of the arms is moved downward along the curved region of the one of the guide grooves and thus the ice tray is turned 90° with the other arm as a fulcrum. Therefore, in a case that dimensional accuracy of a pair of the guide grooves is low, when the ice tray is to be turned 90°, the one of the arms is easily come to contact with a side face of the one of the guide grooves and thus an unfavorable force is easily applied to the arm. As a result, in the ice making device, a load to the drive motor becomes higher.